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Housing Association Homes in Broxbourne

The Council maintains a waiting list of people who would like to live in a housing association home in the Borough. This is known as the Housing Register. The Council also maintains a waiting list of people who already live in a housing association home who would like to transfer to a different housing association property. This is known as the Transfer Register. For more information on the Housing Register, please visit the Housing Register page.

The Council also sets out factors which registered providers of social housing in Broxbourne should consider when formulating their tenancy policies. This is known as a Tenancy Strategy. The Cabinet approved a Tenancy Strategy for Broxbourne in September 2012.

Who does the Council nominate for housing?

Applicants on the housing register

Tenants of housing associations in homes where the Council has nomination rights

Serving Armed Forces' personnel or those who have been discharged in the previous five years

Choice Based Lettings (CBL)

Applicants on the Housing and Transfer Register are able to bid through the Choice Based Lettings scheme on properties that are available and for which they would be eligible. Each applicant is able to bid for a property with the number of bedrooms that they require as set out in the Allocations Policy.

Homelessness

In the first instance, the Council will try to help accepted homeless families to find private rented accommodation and will lend them the money for the deposit. However, it may sometimes be necessary to place families in hostel or another kind of temporary accommodation, and bed and breakfast accommodation may be used on occasion. For further information please refer to the Homelessness page.

Moving to smaller accommodation

Tenants of housing associations who wish to move to a smaller property can be moved via CBL, but given a higher priority.

When will the Council nominate me to a housing association?

This question is frequently asked and unfortunately it is difficult to answer with any degree of accuracy.

Applicants are reminded that they might move down the list rather than up, if another applicant is entitled to more points.

The Council can only nominate you when you bid successfully for a property advertised via CBL. With new housing in short supply, this largely depends upon existing tenants of housing associations moving out and therefore there is no precise way of estimating waiting times. You can compare your points with the feedback produced every fortnight in the freesheet or via the internet.

The Council must be informed if an applicant's circumstances change in any way as this could affect their position on the list.

Where will I be housed?

The Council advertises properties spread right across the Borough from Hoddesdon in the north to Waltham Cross in the south through the Choice Based Lettings scheme.

The sizes and types of properties in each area vary, and we may not have the type of property you need in the area you prefer. All properties are advertised through the HomeOption (CBL) service.

Building new housing association homes

The Council works with housing associations, private developers and the Homes and Communities Agency (the government body with funding for new housing association homes) to build new housing association homes. These new homes are often referred to as affordable housing.

Affordable housing is required on many new housing developments in order to meet the need for cheaper housing in the Borough. Some of these new homes will be rented out by the housing associations to people on the Council's Housing and Transfer Register. Other new homes will be 'shared ownership' homes, which means that the person living in them buys part of the home from the housing association and pays rent on the part of the home that the housing association still owns. This allows people who cannot afford local property prices to get onto the property ladder by buying a 50 per cent share in a property and then buying more if they can afford it later.

Please follow the link to the Affordable housing development page to find further information about the Council's preferred housing association development partners.